India reiterates joint statement

Sunday June 05, 2011By Our Dipomatic Editor
The Indian Government will insist on following up on the points contained in the controversial Joint Statement issued a fortnight ago following the visit of Sri Lanka's External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris to New Delhi for bi-lateral talks.
India’s position will be reiterated when the postponed visit to Colombo of a high powered delegation of Indian officials takes place late next week. National Security Adviser Shiv Shanker Menon and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao are confirmed to comprise the Indian delegation that will hold talks with Sri Lankan leaders during their visit to Colombo. A meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa is also expected. 
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Sri Lanka’s military top guns discuss experiences and answer questions on how they overpowered the LTTE in the decisive stages of the military offensive

Sunday June 05, 2011By Chandani Kirinde
Most Sri Lankans and the world outside had a selective version of the decisive last three years of the military campaign in the north and east that ended dramatically with the annihilation of the LTTE leadership in May, 2009.
However, last week, at an open forum of a three day seminar in Colombo, titled, ‘Defeating terrorism –the Sri Lankan experience’, senior field commanders who served in the frontlines spoke on how they fought a formidable and uncompromising enemy, the LTTE. The seminar was attended by more than 300 delegates from over 40 countries.
The seminar, touched on contributions made by members of the Special Forces and other specialized units of the Sri Lanka Army who played a less known but indispensable role in supporting infantry troops to bring to an end a war that had dragged for 30 long years. The crucial role played by the Navy and Air Force in assisting ground troops too was discussed while progress of post-war issues such as resettlement, rehabilitation and re-integration of ex combatants were highlighted.  read more..  
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Why does this government hate universities? Fascists versus intellectuals

Why has this government taken to such an all out confrontation with intellectuals and the university community - that is students, teachers and prospective future students? I think it is to do with the intrinsic mental character of the Rajapaksa regime. What I mean is, MR, GR and SB have not sat down and mapped out a strategy which says ‘Let’s go out and defecate all over the intellectual community because we have an inferiority complex.’ No, what I mean is that this is the way things have worked out in practice, given the intrinsic nature of the regime. But first, don’t get me wrong when I say “intellectual” and imagine I mean some superior sort of being; no, I only use it as shorthand for people whose job is to work with education, R&D and mental sorts of things. That is, I use it as shorthand for public intellectuals, university teachers, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, etc., - so if you have a chip on your shoulder, or life was hard on you in those crucial years when others had a soft option, or if you didn’t manage to take a first, or whatever, just relax.

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